Let’s discuss the reasons behind the success of this industry with the founder of the international contact center Wilstream, Aydın Orucov.

– Mr. Aydın, Wilstream has been the regional leader in this field of services for more than 20 years. How do you explain your success? Why do leading companies around the world outsource their call center functions?
– The answer is simple: it’s more cost-effective. More than 1,500 of our regular clients from 16 countries confirm this fact. The global call center outsourcing market volume in 2023 amounted to 109.34 billion USD, and it continues to grow rapidly. This is explained by the fact that setting up your own call center is expensive, requires a lot of time, knowledge, and investments in technology and equipment. With outsourcing, all these costs and challenges are taken over by a professional contact center. In addition, outsourcing not only eliminates upfront investments but also significantly reduces operating expenses.

– And how exactly does outsourcing reduce operating costs?
– Our clients pay only for the actual talk time spent by operators, whereas companies and government institutions with their own call centers must pay employees for a full working day, sick leave, vacation, and so on. Most importantly, outsourcing eliminates expenses related to hiring and training operators, supervisors, managers at different levels, quality control departments, IT specialists, trainers, rent, taxes, and countless other costs. Equally important, outsourcing frees up company leaders’ time and energy, allowing them to focus on developing their business.

– What if a company already has its own call center? Do you have such clients?
– The majority of our large clients — both private and public sector — already have their own call centers. For many of them, one of the most in-demand services is Wilstream’s backup call center. Thanks to this service, calls are redirected to the outsourced call center during night hours, non-working days, or peak call volumes. This improves service levels and gives businesses a competitive advantage, as they become accessible to customers 24/7. In addition, outsourcing allows companies to maintain a minimal number of in-house operators. When all internal operators are busy, calls are automatically redirected to the outsourced contact center.

– What other services, apart from handling incoming calls, does Wilstream offer?
– In the Azerbaijani market, outbound calls are quite popular. Thanks to our IT infrastructure and modern technologies, we can quickly carry out large-scale outbound campaigns, marketing research, telesales, and NPS (Net Promoter Score) surveys.

– What technologies are available to Wilstream clients?
– We offer clients a wide range of proven technological solutions, from CRM integration and IVR voice menus to the use of artificial intelligence in call and chat handling. One of Wilstream’s latest innovations is omnichannel capability — the ability to handle requests through all possible communication channels: calls, online messengers, emails, chats, and more. At the same time, the entire history of client interactions is stored in a single interface. This improves service quality and shortens conversation times, as the client does not need to repeat their problem, and the operator can see the full history of communication in one window. This feature is precisely what distinguishes a modern professional contact center from a traditional call center.

– Speaking of Azerbaijan, you have been operating in this market for two years now. What are your impressions?
– Of course, introducing an absolutely innovative service to the Azerbaijani market was a big risk. But now we can say with confidence that it has paid off. Azerbaijani companies are very enthusiastic about adopting advanced technologies, especially when they enable significant savings in time and costs.